CANNES:–Amid tears, embraces and a rousing standing ovation, the 66th Cannes Festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or for best film was won by “Blue is the Warmest Color”, by Franco-Tunisian director, Abdellatif Kechiche. In an unusual gesture, Steven Spielberg and his jury decided that the award is to be shared between the director and the film’s two leading actresses, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux, whose exceptional performances were the talk of the town.

“Blue is the Warmest Color” (“La Vie d’Adèle”), a passionate lesbian love story between a 15-year-old girl, Adèle, and Emma a sensual blue-haired painter, has been the critics’ favorite since it screened last Thursday.

Flanked by his actresses, Kechiche haltingly gave out numerous thanks to his film team and evoked the late director, Claude Berri for his support. The director finished by dedicating his film to “the beautiful youth of France” whom he met during the long shoot and “who taught me a lot about the spirit of freedom” and to the Tunisian youth of the Arab Spring.

The best director award went to Mexican filmmaker, Amat Escalante for “Heli” a violent drama about a young girl who falls in love with a young policeman.

Veteran American actor, Bruce Dern, who was not present at the ceremony, was named best actor for his role as a caustic, deluded hard-drinking father in Alexander Payne’s black and white family drama, “Nebraska.”

“If I got an award, we’d all be thrilled but you don’t make a movie for a box of candy in the end,” Dern said in an interview on Friday. “What means more to me–judging from the enthusiastic reception we got during the 10-minute standing ovation–was that the audience felt that they’d just seen a movie that they hadn’t seen in a while.”

The best actress prize was awarded to Franco-Brazilian actress, Bérénice Bejo for her moving performance in Asghar Farhadi’s fifth feature film, “The Past,” set in Paris. The actress, who pocketed a French César in 2012 for her role in “The Artist”, gave an emotional thanks to the director, almost speechless with surprise.

Kim Novak presented this year’s Grand Prix to Ethan and Joel Coen for “Inside Llewyn Davis,” a musical romp through the Greenwich Village early 60s folk scene. The prize was accepted the film’s male lead, Oscar Isaac, who plays a young struggling singer.

The best screenplay award went to “A Touch of Sin” by Chinese director, Jia Zhangke, which intertwines four stories from contrasting geographic in contemporary China.

The Jury Prize was awarded to “Like Father, like Son”, a moving Japanese family drama by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

Cinefondation and short films jury president Jane Campion presented the Palme d’Or for a short film prize to Korean filmmaker Byoung-Gon Moon for his 13-minute work, “Safe”.

Among the 20 films in the competition lineup, notably absent from the awards were Italian director’s Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Behind the Candelabra”, both high on the list of favorites with the critics and festival audiences. James Gray (“The Immigrant”) and Nicolas Winding Refn (“Only God Forgives”) also walked away empty-handed.

After forty briskly paced minutes of award giving, mistress of ceremonies Audrey announced that the party was over. “Et voilà, c’est fini!” she said. “See you next year.”

A screening of French director Jeremy Salle’s “Zulu”, a police drama set in South Africa, starring Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker, followed the closing ceremony.

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